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NCD Alliance to conduct new surveillance survey on NCDs
The CNMI might very well be looking into having its first-ever surveillance survey for the prevalence rate of non-communicable disease, which has not been conducted for many years.
NCD Alliance member Becky Robles said they have started working on the survey questions.
Robles, who is also the Commonwealth Healthcare Corp.’s Division of Public Health Non-Communicable Disease Bureau administrator, said she needed to finish the final draft before Friday last week.
The need for a prevalence survey in CNMI is very much needed, as NCD Alliance chair Dr. Don Hardt noted when presenting different statistics that were available from past years. He cited differing data from CHCC’s Dialysis Center, Hardt Eye Clinic, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and other old data that were uncovered online.
“Guam has its statistics, but numbers here in the CNMI remain missing,” he said.
One other need for the survey is so that NCD issues could be lobbied with the CNMI leadership, this time with numbers indicating the need for better funding, better screening, and better awareness.
“It is important to get the surveillance survey out soon and start knocking on people’s doors and hope they accommodate what we’re surveying and ask family members on who has NCDs,” Robles said.
In a separate interview, World Health Organization Pacific NCD & Health’s Dr. Cherian Varghese said the survey is necessary for the people for the CNMI to measure the current benchmarks, upon which future data could be compared.
